Pearson VUE Survey Affirms Value of Tech Certifications

Pop quiz, IT certification hot shots: What happens when more more than 29,000 different individuals take an IT certification exam? According to research conducted by training and testing titan Pearson VUE, a whole lot of good things can happen.

As a result of its unique position as a testing partner with some of the largest and most popular IT certification programs in the world, Pearson VUE has unique access to quite a few IT certification test takers. At the end of last year, the company leveraged that friendly relationship to gather some interesting data.

Earlier today, Pearson VUE announced some of the findings from a survey that yielded 29,297 completed responses from test takers in countries around the world. Among the key findings detailed, 65 percent of those surveyed report that obtaining a certification had a positive impact on their professional reputation.

Among other benefits, 22.6 percent of Pearson VUE survey respondents said that becoming credentialed helped them to launch a career in IT, while 17.7 percent said that certification had helped them to secure a salary increase.

For some survey participants, coming up with the sometimes hefty cash amount needed to take a certification has gotten easier. A notable 56 percent of those surveyed report that an employer paid for their exam, an increase of 6 percent from Pearson VUE's 2016 survey of certification exam takers.

Additionally, only 30 percent of exams covered in the survey were paid for solely by the individual test taker. The exam fee, of course, isn't the only potential cost associated with IT certification: More than 80 percent of those surveyed said they completed at least one training course to prepare for their exam.

Tech employers also weighed in. Pearson VUE reports that 35 different IT companies participated in the survey. Pearson VUE executive Bob Whelan said in a statement announcing the release of survey results that more and more tech companies are recognizing the "substantial benefits" of certification to both staff and business outcomes.

"More than half of employees (54 percent) experienced their first benefit from certification very quickly, within the first three months," Whelan said, "which could explain why 88 percent are likely to take a further certification (exam) in the next 12 months."

Participants in the survey are individuals who had completed at least one certification exam via Pearson VUE in the 12-month period prior to the survey, which was conducted in October 2017.

Additional findings of the Pearson VUE 2017 Value of Certification Survey are available online.